Hickory

Hickory - Carya ovata

A large tree with a massive trunk reaches heights of 160 feet with 6-7 feet diameters. Has a very long life - up to 350 years. Extremely tough and resilient. May be somewhat difficult to work with hand tools. Hickory looks very nice when finished. 16.20% heavier and 45.74% harder than red oak. Heartwood tends to be light to medium brown, with a reddish hue; sapwood is a paler yellowish brown. Hickory is among the hardest and strongest of woods native to the United States. On average, Hickory is denser, stiffer, and harder than either White Oak or Hard Maple. The wood is commonly used where strength or shock-resistance is important. Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, was popularly nicknamed Old Hickory, a play on the toughness of hickory wood. In 1830, he began planning the construction of his tomb at The Hermitage, his plantation in Tennessee. The grave site was surrounded by a variety of trees, including six shagbark hickories. They stood there for 168 years until a storm in 1998 demolished over 1,200 trees at the site. Work on replanting them remains an ongoing project.